Even though he has only six weeks left in office after losing to Alpine Democrat Pete Gallego, Canseco said he would continue to vote for conservative fiscal policies favored by the tea party and would not be swayed to abandon his beliefs.

President Barack Obama has proposed extending tax cuts for the middle class, but ending the benefit for households earning more than $250,000 per year.

Canseco argued that not extending the tax cut for the wealthiest would cripple families who own small businesses in San Antonio, like restaurants and other storefronts that provide services.

“What you are going to be doing is freezing the ability to grow the economy,” Canseco said.

Opposition by House Republicans to end the tax cut for the wealthy has been met with alternative proposals that include the closing of loopholes in the tax code on investment dividends and mortgage interest.

Failure to reach an agreement could push the country over a “fiscal cliff,” prompting sequester — or across-the-board cuts — to military and domestic programs.

Texas could lose 159,000 military and defense contracting jobs, program cuts due to a $1.4 billion budget reduction to NASA and scaled-down border and immigration enforcement, according to the Office of Management and Budget and private studies.

Rep. Lamar Smith, a House Republican leader, said that instead of focusing on the tax rate, negotiations should center on closing special-interest loopholes and deductions.

“And instead of making massive cuts to defense spending, we should reform the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt crisis,” said Smith, R-San Antonio.

Any deal that can pass the House would have to include the swing vote of “Blue Dog” fiscal conservative Democrats.

The Blue Dog Coalition, consisting of about two dozen Democratic lawmakers, previously voted with Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels.

One Blue Dog member, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said he would vote to eliminate a tax cut extension for incomes of more than $250,000 — but only if it is part of a larger plan that includes cuts in spending and other measures to raise revenue.

Standing alone, Cuellar said he could not vote to eliminate the tax cut for the wealthy. “It has to be part of a grand plan, a grand deal,” he said.

“The military has to have cuts, too,” Cuellar said. “Everybody has to have a little skin in the game.”

A week after losing re-election, Canseco said he would not budge from long-held beliefs and blamed Obama's coattails, as well as a Republican-led redistricting, not a rejection of his conservative ideals, for Gallego's victory.

He said redistricting, which was intended to shore up support for Canseco, may have instead removed potential voters in south San Antonio where he is better known than Gallego, despite the fact that the precincts are heavily Democrat.

“I lost a hunk of south San Antonio, and I did pick up a lot of people in El Paso who didn't know me from Adam,” Canseco said.

The Laredo native still claims there is evidence of voter fraud, but he declined to offer up specifics, saying generally that things are done differently on the border “and leave it at that.”